Dear Parents
I would like to take this opportunity to again welcome your children to our Early Years phase and extend an especially warm welcome to our families who are brand new to DBIS. Whilst we wish we were welcoming all our children back to school in person, we are very much looking forward to meeting your children through their live Google Meet sessions next week and hope they are excited to see their friends and meet the adults they will be learning with. I do appreciate that these are exceptional times and want to acknowledge the impact this is likely to have had on many of our families.
New Staff Members
I am delighted to be able to introduce you to the new members of our Early Years Teaching Team:
Pam Cassidy: Deputy Head of Early Years.
Pam brings a wealth of experience both as a leader and practitioner in Early Childhood Education to our Early Years team. Mrs Cassidy is looking forward to forming relationships with our children and families over the course of the coming weeks.
We are also welcoming the following members of staff to our Early Years Teaching Team:
Emma Jones: Early Years Learning Technologies Teacher
Radhika Gidwani: Sunflower Nursery Teacher
Ciara Sasikumar: EY2 class teacher
Lyndsey Coote: EY2 class teacher
Lisa Carter: Sunflower class EA (Lisa will be joining us once our Early Years Campus reopens. Throughout the closure, our Sunflower children will be supported by one of our current Early Years EAs, Jackie Man).
Amber Horne: Garden class EA
Maria Maldonado: EY1 EA
Vivian Yeo: EY2 EA
Susie Sun: EA for Early Years Mandarin
Whitney Fritsch: Early Years Inclusion EA (Whitney will be joining us once our Early Years campus reopens).
Karishma Pozzebon: Early Years Campus Nurse (Karishma will be joining us once our Early Years campus reopens).
Early Years Home Learning Programme
You can now access a more detailed timetable for your child’s home learning programme which can be found on the parent hub in your child’s specific year group. Our Nursery children will continue to be welcomed into our Early Years through a staggered approach to home learning and our Reception to EY2 children will have two days of introductory learning followed by the start of their full timetable from Monday 17th August.
Our initial Parent teacher conferences will be taking place online and teachers will be communicating the details of the links for these meetings. We recognise that each child is unique and have therefore made the decision not to plan specific parent teacher meetings into our home learning programme timetable. Instead, we ask parents to please contact class teachers or a member of the Early Years Leadership team directly if you wish to discuss any aspect of your child’s learning, development or wellbeing throughout this period. We continue to have an ‘open door’ policy for our parents to be able to make an appointment at mutually convenient times to support you with your child’s home learning and overall development.
As has been communicated previously, the online aspect of your child’s learning will be accessed through Seesaw. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that Angela Moriarty (Head of Learning Technologies) will be running online parent workshops to support in setting up and familiarising yourself with your child’s Seesaw account. These will be held at the following times:
Wednesday 12th August: 9:00 -10:00am: Nursery and Reception Parents
Wednesday 12th August: 1:00 – 2:00pm: EY1 and 2 Parents
Mrs Moriarty will be communicating a link for parents to access this training. The sessions will also be recorded for those parents who cannot attend. Additionally, I would like to provide a link to our Early Years and Primary Guide to Learning Technologies which will be useful to you as we introduce the children to different apps and websites. Please note that your child may not use all of these apps or websites depending on their age as this document is relevant to children across the Early Years and Primary phases, however this is a useful reference point for you throughout the home learning period. Additionally, our Learning Technologies team will be in touch to let you know your child’s login details for their Seesaw account.
New Families
We are very pleased to be welcoming new families to our DBIS community. Myself and Mrs Cassidy will be creating videos of the presentations you would have seen to share information about our school and will then be available for an online drop in session should you have any further questions or would simply like to meet us in person (albeit virtually!). Details of this will be communicated directly to our new families next week.
Parent Focus Groups
Our home learning programme will continue to evolve and develop with our young learners based on feedback from our families and the professional judgements of our teaching staff. I would like to express my gratitude to the parents who have signalled an interest in being a part of our focus groups to support with the development of our home learning programme and will be in contact over the course of the next few weeks to arrange our first meeting.
It is in times of challenge that providing consistency and a sense of normality is important for our young children and there is nothing more important to us than ensuring the best for the children whether they are physically in school or learning from home. We will endeavour to support your child to grow as a resilient, independent and inquisitive learner who is given the opportunity to achieve all that they are capable of.
In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to let all our Early Years families know that I fully appreciate the challenges and difficulties this current situation may have placed upon you as a family. Our Early Years phase is built upon positive relationships and I urge any parents who have any questions or concerns to please reach out as we will support in anyway that we can. Should you wish to contact me directly, my email address is [email protected] and I will endeavour to respond as quickly as possible.
With best wishes
Hannah Cole
Head of Early Years